Tab Ramos defends Gio Reyna after bust-up with Gregg Berhalter at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar

Former USMNT assistant coach Tab Ramos has defended Gio Reyna after the player got into trouble with head coach Gregg Berhalter in Qatar, adding that he could see a change on the bench before the World Cup hits. North America in 2026.

Earlier this month, Berhalter revealed the team’s concerns about Reyna in the tournament when he spoke at the HOW Institute for Society’s Moral Leadership Summit in New York on December 6 after the Star and Stripes’ 3-1 loss. against the Netherlands in the round of 16. .

Excerpts were later published by Charter Works in a newsletter, hinting that things got so bad internally that the 21-year-old Reyna narrowly prevented the team from voting to send him home by a vote of 13-12.

Tab Ramos has defended Gio Reyna over reported issues with USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter at the World Cup in Qatar

Ramos said Berhalter’s break with Reyna is “something that shouldn’t be there.”

The Borussia Dortmund star later responded to Berhalter’s comment by publishing his own statement, saying he was given a “very limited” role in Qatar.

“Coach Berhalter has always said that any problems that arise with the team will stay ‘at home,'” added the 20-year-old.

Now it seems that Ramos, who has coached the US Under-20 team and the Houston Dynamo in MLS, couldn’t agree more with the son of USMNT great Claudio Reyna.

‘What I would say about that is that what happens in the locker room stays in the locker room. That’s all,’ the 56-year-old coach told BOLAVIP, who has been coaching USL Hartford Athletic since August.

Ramos is a former American midfielder with 8 goals in 81 games. Pictured at the 1998 World Cup in France

“In terms of Gregg Berhalter, when he took over, he went to MLS headquarters and was there designing how the team was going to play, how the right-back was always going to get inside and all that stuff.”

‘Sometimes you can talk too much. You can have all the systems you want but you depend on your players, you have to adjust whatever your system is to the players you have.

“So it’s not so much about you and your system, it’s about the players and how you can get the most out of them. So, I was surprised when this came out just because of that, why are you saying anything?

“The World Cup is over, and in terms of Gio, he’s a young player, he’s very talented and yes, of course, he’s been inconsistent due to his injuries, he’s barely played for the team in a year and a half, so when Gio he goes to the World Cup and he doesn’t play, of course he won’t be happy or he’ll do something that may be out of line, but at the end of the day he’s a 20-year-old kid, if you don’t I don’t want to play with him, no you play with him…’

Reyna (left) tackling England’s Jack Grealish during the England-USA second half. USA in Qatar

Ramos added that he does not “blame Reyna” and that it was natural for the player to “defend himself a bit” after his name was mentioned in “something that should not be there.”

The former Star and Stripe midfielder, with eight goals in 81 appearances, added that it was “unlikely” Berhalter would be in the United States’ dugout four years from now, when the world’s biggest sporting event will take place in the United States. United States, Canada and Mexico.

“I really don’t know what will happen to Gregg Berhalter, what I’m pretty sure is that it is unlikely that he will train in the 2026 World Cup,” Ramos said.

So, they keep it for the moment, it’s difficult to be eight years in a row with the team. If he stays, it would be for a certain amount of time, you could see US Soccer saying, “Now we have to go to the World Cup, now we have to improve.”

“I was able to see that happen and make a change.”

The USMNT, Mexico and Canada will not need to qualify for the tournament as all three will be host countries. CONCACAF is in talks with CONMEBOL to include the trio in the next Copa América in 2024.